In case you missed it | Sex, lies and videotape, aka CIA appointment

I guess it’s impossible for Hillary Clinton to fill every position in the Obama administration, but it sure would be nice considering the alternative choices. We all know what happened to Obama’s last CIA head, David Petraeus — let’s just say he got caught with his pants down. That’s what makes Obama’s selection of current White House homeland security adviser John Brennan to replace Petraeus so infuriating. John Brennan is a proven liar perfectly willing to deceive the American people for political purposes. You may remember Brennan as the guy at the microphone for the Obama administration following the killing of Osama bin Laden by a Navy SEAL team.

With a straight face, Brennan told all of America that he had personally witnessed the raid live as bin Laden put up a fierce fire fight, eventually grabbing a defenseless woman as a human shield just before he died a coward’s death, only hours after he had been watching porn while stroking his newly dyed beard with great vanity.

Great story or, as it turns out, screenplay, but unfortunately, Brennan was lying through his teeth because he knew the truth: namely, that we had found bin Laden in the middle of the night and shot him dead plus a few more times for good measure even though he never picked up a gun or hid behind anyone. We could have captured him but that would have created its own problems with where to hold him and his trial, not to mention there was that coming election for Brennan’s boss as well.

Granted, Brennan would have made an excellent choice for propaganda minister on Joseph McCarthy’s staff, but not a CIA director in a time of warrantless wiretaps and other significant assaults on our freedoms. As a bonus, Brennan’s critics have also accused him of being supportive of using torture as a means to extract information from suspected, though untried, political prisoners with ties to terrorism, ties such as maybe living in the same village as a suspected terrorist or having a similar sounding last name when pronounced by a white guy from Alabama.

Bottom line, paying back Brennan with an appointment for his willingness to lie to advance Obama’s political career is bad enough, but giving this manipulative propaganda practitioner the full power and backing of the CIA to play with is wrong and dangerous.

THE SHORT VERSION

The elk is still dead. The cops are still bumbling.

COMMISSIONERS’ TOUGH TALK

A well in Weld County | Photo by Jefferson Dodge

We’ve given the county commissioners a healthy ration of criticism over the years, most recently when it came to their approach to regulating oil and gas operations in the county, so when they do something good, especially in that realm, we feel like we should throw them a bone. The commissioners wasted no time lambasting the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) for its Jan. 7 decision to adopt a pansy-ass rule for groundwater testing. In a press release sent out that same day, our county leaders not only gave credence to environmentalists’ claims that the rule is one of the weakest in the nation, they ripped the COGCC for deciding “against putting in place a science-based groundwater protection plan.”

Saying they are “extremely disappointed” in the rule, the commissioners note that the Greater Wattenberg Area, which stretches into eastern Boulder County, is “exempted wholesale” from the rule that applies to the rest of the state, “making this significant expanse of land subject only to a cursory testing requirement despite having some of the most intensive drilling activity in the state. This type of rulemaking at the state level is a prime example of why local governments should be able to respond directly to their citizens’ concerns and provide for their community’s request for more protection.”